At 03:34 PM 8/24/00 -0600, Tom Christiansen wrote:
> >I have several RFCs I need to write about removing certain functionality
> >out of the core (math functions, IPC, networking, "user"). I don't want to
> >go too overboard. I don't know that we want to go so far as to remove
> >printing and such. It might be nice to generalize some functions (like the
> >discussion with open() that happened awhile back).
>
>Unless that's done completely transparently, you'll pretty much screw the
>pooch as far as "Perl is the Cliff Notes of Unix" notion. Not to
>mention running a very strong risk of butchering the performance.
One of the current plans is for the parser to have access to a list of
functions that trigger autoloading modules. If, for example, it sees
shmget(), that'll trigger the loading of the SysV::SharedMem module. (Or
whatever module it lives in) There'll be a magic registry somewhere that
can get added to when a module is installed--think of it as @EXPORT on
steroids. (You don't even have to use the module to get it loaded, as the
mere mention of a name summons it. We'll probably have to come up with some
name that has the acronym "hastur" or something...)
One of the other plans is to provide a way for people to write op-level
functions that run at near-op speed. (The difference being an extra pointer
deref, most likely) We want calling XS functions to be snappy too, of
course, but this is a level deeper. Less safe and more prone to breakage
from version to version of perl, but that's the risk you take when working
under the hood.
>I don't understand this desire to eviscerate Perl's guts.
I do. I just don't understand the desire on the part of other people. ;-)
Dan
--------------------------------------"it's like this"-------------------
Dan Sugalski even samurai
[EMAIL PROTECTED] have teddy bears and even
teddy bears get drunk
